1. Denzel Washington - American Gangster (2007)
In one form or another, American Gangster had been in active development since 2000 when the rights to the story of Frank Lucas were purchased by Universal Pictures. Originally slated as a Brian de Palma-directed movie called Tru Blu, American Gangster was greenlit in early 2004 with Antoine Fuqua behind the camera and Benicio del Toro and Denzel Washington starring. Of course, the movie was eventually made with Ridley Scott and old cohort Russel Crowe, and didn't even begin shooting until July 2006. Throughout all of the production troubles, Washington was the only constant. In late 2004, Fuqua was fired only weeks before the project was to begin filming, citing the old classic 'creative differences'. With an already-hefty budget and no sufficient time to replace the director, the project was scrapped at a cost of $30 million. Due to the fact that they had signed 'pay or play' contracts, Washington and del Toro were entitled to $20 million and $5 million respectively for the cancelled project. Many people believe that Washington was paid another $20 million for signing on when the project was resurrected the following year, but this isn't the case. Nonetheless, he still made what was fast becoming his passion project a nice little earner. To rejoin the movie, Washington opted to take a percentage of the gross as he had already been paid his $20 million fee when it was abandoned. When it was finally released in November 2007, American Gangster received solid critical reviews and grossed $266.4 million on a $100 million budget and shipped over 4.3m units on DVD for home video sales of $72.6 million in the US alone. When all was said and done, Denzel Washington's dedication to the project had netted him almost $40 million. They might as well have just paid him twice.